Method and Apparatus for Monitoring Electric Power Transmission, Disturbances and Forecasts

• US 20120173174A1
• Filed: 03/13/2012
• Published: 07/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Live Power Intelligence Company NA, LLC
• Original Assignee: Live Power Intelligence Company NA, LLC
• Inventors: GAARDER, PÅL EVEN
• Granted Patent: US 9,702,923 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/58
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/086 in power transmission or distribution networks, i.e. with interconnected conductors
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00002 characterised by monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00024 by means of mobile telephony
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00026 involving a local wireless network, e.g. Wi-Fi, ZigBee or Bluetooth
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00028 involving the use of Internet protocols
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/30 State monitoring, e.g. fault, temperature monitoring, insulator monitoring, corona discharge
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/52 Outage or fault management, e.g. fault detection or location
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/126 using wireless data transmission

Abstract

An apparatus (10) and method for monitoring power transmission, disturbances and forecasts in a power grid is disclosed. The apparatus (10) comprises a plurality of magnetic field sensors (30) or voltage sensors (50) for measuring a change in the magnetic field (35) or voltage over time at the electric power transmission line (20).

Claims

1. A method for determining a disturbance on an electric power transmission network comprising:

monitoring a magnetic field at a first magnetic field sensor;

determining a first change in value of a feature associated with the magnetic field at the first magnetic field sensor;

comparing the first change in the value of the feature associated with the magnetic field with a first magnetic field reference value, and thereby determining a presence of the disturbance.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first magnetic field reference value is an updateable value.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the feature is an expected waveform.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the value of the feature associated with the magnetic field is calculated by using a mathematical transformation.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring of the magnetic field comprises sampling digitally the magnetic field to produce a series of digital values representative of the value of the magnetic field at known ones of the times.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the determining of a change in the value of the magnetic field comprises comparing members of the series of digital values against the known times.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a second change in a value of the feature associated with the magnetic field at a second magnetic field sensor;

comparing the first change with the second change to determine the presence of the disturbance.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining location of the disturbance using the times of the first change and the second change and knowledge of the grid transfer function.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a wake-up signal to one or more of the first magnetic field sensors on determination of the disturbance.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising forecasting at least one of demand, commodity costs or power plant fuel value.

11. A method for determining a disturbance on an electric power transmission network comprising:

monitoring a voltage by a first voltage sensor;

determining a first change in a value of a feature associated with the voltage at the first voltage sensor;

comparing the first change in the value of the feature associated with the voltage with a first voltage reference value, and thereby determining a presence of the disturbance.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first voltage reference value is an updateable value.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the feature is an expected waveform.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the first voltage reference value is calculated by using a mathematical transformation.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the monitoring of the voltage comprises sampling digitally values of the voltage to produce a serious of digital values representative of the value of the voltage at known ones of the times.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the determining of a change in the value of the voltage comprises comparing members of the serious of digital values against the known ones of the times.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the voltage sensor is at a low-voltage part of the electric power transmission network.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining a second change in a value of the feature associated with the magnetic field at a second voltage sensor;

comparing the first change with the second change to determine the presence of the disturbance.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising determining location of the disturbance using the times of the first change and the second change and knowledge of the grid transfer function.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising sending a wake-up signal to one or more of the first voltage sensors on determination of the disturbance.

21. The method of claim 11, further comprising forecasting at least one of demand, commodity cost and power plant fuel value.

22. An apparatus for determining a disturbance on an electric power transmission network comprising:

one or more data lines for reception of data relating to a value at least one location of a feature representing at least one of a magnetic field or a voltage;

a processor for analysing the received data and determining changes in the value of the feature representing at least one of the magnetic field or the voltage against time, and thereby determining the disturbance on the power grid by comparison to a reference value.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the reference value is an updateable value.

24. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the feature is an expected waveform.

25. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the reference value is calculated by using a mathematical transformation.

26. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the data lines are radio channels.

27. The apparatus of claim 22, further comprising a plurality of magnetic field sensors located proximate to at least one of the one or more data lines.

28. The apparatus of claim 22, further comprising a field description database for storing of states representative of a configuration and operation of the electric power transmission network.

29. The apparatus of claim 22, further comprising a statistic and probability database for determining a probability of a state of the configuration of the electric power transmission network.

30. The apparatus of claim 22, further comprising a wake-up signal generator for causing at least one sensor to provide additional data to the processor.

31. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the processor is adapted to determine at least two changes in a value of the feature and compare a first one of the at least two changes with a second one of the at least two changes to determine the location of the disturbance.

32. The apparatus of claim 22, further comprising a forecasting device.

33. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the forecasting devices is adapted to forecast at least one of demand, power plant fuel value or commodity cost.

34. A computer program product stored on a non-volatile medium comprising:

a first software module for storing a plurality of digital values relating to a measured value of at least one of a magnetic field or a voltage, and a time of measurement;

a second software module for comparing two or more of the plurality of digital values to determine a change in the value of a feature associated with at least one of the magnetic field or the voltage over a period of time; and

a third software module for calculating changes in the rate of change of the measured value of the feature over time, and thereby determining a disturbance on a power grid.